All the Boys Love Mandy Lane 2006

Kyle Smith, New York Post: A slightly artsy attempt to revive the teen slasher movie, "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" drifts awkwardly between popcorn entertainment and angsty mood piece. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Imbued with a sense of constant calamity that is never a surprise, the movie becomes the same slaughterhouse of cliches it pretends to poke fun at. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Not nearly thoughtful or incisive enough to subsist on thwarted expectations alone. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Mandy" is a sturdy little slasher film, nothing more. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: Despite moments of black comedy and some memorable images, this 'debut' doesn't offer a lot to love. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Levine has fun with the genre, but he's found more interesting movies to make since. "Mandy" isn't quite dandy, but it's a cut above average. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Here's a case where the backstory is more interesting than the movie. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: It doesn't reinvent the genre, but it is a strong addition to the canon of films that fuse teenage anxieties of the body and social interaction with blood-soaked storytelling. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: Writer Jacob Forman takes the possessive male gaze to its violent extreme. Mandy isn't much of a character, and that's the point. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: Despite early promise for a semi-interesting examination of teenage obsession, the film devolves into a standard, and not thrilling, body-count builder. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, New York Times: There's a slightly nasty twist to some of the violence, with an air of school shooter menace ultimately creeping in as the group's tormentor is revealed. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: While some of the kills are sufficiently clever and gnarly, "Mandy Lane" is never particularly frightening. And the twist at the end raises the wee issue of character motivation-or lack thereof. Read more

Mark Medley, Globe and Mail: Director Jonathan Levine's film displays an intelligence lacking in most teen slasher pics. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It's a time trip worth taking, with moody lensing and a suspenseful script (by Jacob Forman) that offers more than just the usual bloodbath. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: For a film about the evils of peer pressure, this nonsensical thriller sure wants to play with the cool kids ... Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A partly smart, mostly dumb addition to the teen horror sweepstakes -- smart in how it neatly catches the petty, hurtful, sexy and druggy aspects of high school life, dumb in how it makes absolutely no sense once its resolution is known. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Too dumb for the arthouse, but too smart for the mall multiplex, the movie satisfies, paradoxically, precisely because it doesn't deliver on expectations. Read more